In a recent court conference in Queens County Surrogate’s Court, Surrogate Peter J. Kelly indicated that, all else being equal, he’s inclined to appoint as administrator of an estate the first to file their petition when there are multiple distributees equally entitled to letters of administration.
Continue Reading Surrogate Kelly: First to File Gets First Priority
Queens County Continues to Experience Processing Delays
The Queens County Surrogate’s Court continues to require more time than usual to review submissions, advising E-Filers that it will take up to eight weeks to review documents. I recently E-Filed a Petition for Administration in Queens and received the following auto-generated email.
Continue Reading Queens County Continues to Experience Processing Delays
My Office’s Descent and Distribution Diagram
These days, my practice focuses almost exclusively on estate litigation, surrogate’s court practice, and adult guardianship. However, I used to do estate planning.
My office created a descent and distribution diagram to aide estate planning clients in visualizing the difference between per capita, per stirpes, and by representation.Continue Reading My Office’s Descent and Distribution Diagram
The Easy Way for Attorneys Representing the Decedent’s Cousins to Get a Death Certificate in New York City
Retrieving an original copy of a death certificate in New York City usually isn’t a big challenge, but it can be if the client’s degree of kindred to the decedent is too remote, like a cousin.
In my practice, the issue often comes up when the client is a cousin and an alleged heir in a kinship proceeding in one of the five boroughs of NYC. As a cousin, the client may be an “entitled party“, but they are not an entitled party with automatic right to a death certificate in NYC.
The solution? The Vital Records Attorney Protocol has always made obtaining an original copy of a death certificate in NYC for my clients fairly seamless.Continue Reading The Easy Way for Attorneys Representing the Decedent’s Cousins to Get a Death Certificate in New York City